by Susan VonderHaar, Executive Director
This has been another great year of sharing, learning, and gaining momentum in our mission to catalyze a resilient culture in our bioregion. Below are just a few of the highlights:
Earth Care
Our Growing Value Nursery sold about 1700 edible perennials that will be planted across the tri-state and beyond. Our top-sellers included: pawpaws, currants, honeyberries, and cherries.
More than half of our Nursery stock is now locally and organically grown and we expect that number will increase dramatically over the next few years.
We continue to increase the number and genetic diversity of native plants, particularly herbaceous, medicinal, and important pollinator plants.
With grant support from the City of Cincinnati, 18 new sites are being established as Food Forests that are sequestering carbon, building soil, purifying air and water, increasing local biodiversity, as well as the yield of food and habitat for wildlife. This includes the one acre demonstration site adjacent to the Nursery.
People Care
Our Neighborhood of Members has grown to over 50 individuals. For their convenience, we offered recurring walk-in hours and individual appointments at the Nursery.
We now offer three different formats of the Permaculture Design Certification course (PDC) each year: the Year-Long, the Winter Weekend, and the Summer Intensive (at Antioch College).
Each year we continue to expand and diversify our teaching staff and site hosts who bring new perspectives and skill-sets, including unique workshop events and one-off classes.
Our marketing, which reaches thousands regularly, includes news from the broader community to help promote and support a wide range of offerings and individuals.
We have worked closely with other non-profit organizations to improve our governance, operations, and capacities of our board members and community partners.
Fair Share
Neighbors, friends, and families in the at-large community are joining in CPI’s Implementation Projects which take place at a variety of sites including residences, community centers, businesses, and churches, with more than 20 different locations being served by approximately 100 individuals. We look forward to reporting the hundreds of pounds of produce yielded in the coming years.
Grant funding, membership dues, and other financial support has allowed us to put more than $30K into the local economy.
Discounted prices were provided for more than half of our record-year Nursery sales.
We gave two full and two partial scholarships for the Permaculture Design Certification course.